SRINAGAR, October 9, 2025 : The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Friday a batch of petitions seeking the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, which was downgraded to a Union Territory following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
The matter is listed at Serial No. 17 before the bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI). “The case is listed for hearing on October 10 before the CJI’s bench,” confirmed advocate Soayib Qureshi, appearing in the matter.
He added that the Union of India has not yet filed its response on the petitions.
Earlier, on August 14, while hearing the plea, the apex court had observed that ground realities must be considered, referring to the Pahalgam terror attack. The bench of CJI B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran remarked, “You must also take into account the ground realities; you cannot ignore what happened in Pahalgam.”
The petitioners have contended that the continued delay in restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir violates the constitutional principle of federalism, a part of the basic structure of the Constitution. They have also highlighted that the Supreme Court’s December 2023 direction — that “restoration of statehood shall take place at the earliest and as soon as possible” — has not yet been implemented, nor has any timeline been laid out by the Centre.
